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AES Notebook Proportional RepresentationThe
rationale underpinning all proportional representation (PR) systems is to
consciously reduce the disparity between a party's share of the national
vote and its share of the parliamentary seats. If a major party wins forty
percent of the votes, it should win approximately forty percent of the
seats, and a minor party with ten percent of the votes should also gain
ten percent of the parliamentary seats. The use of party lists helps to
achieve proportionality, whereby political parties present lists of
candidates to the voters on a national or regional basis. However, it can
be achieved just as easily if the proportional component of an MMP system
compensates for any disproportional arriving out of the majoritarian
district results. But preferential voting can work equally well: the
Single Transferable Vote, where voters rank-order candidates in
multi-member districts, is another well-established proportional system. PR
systems are a common choice in many new democracies. Over twenty
established democracies, and just under half of all "free"
democracies, use some variant of PR. PR systems are dominant in Latin
America and Western Europe, and make up a third of all the systems in
Africa. While seats are often allocated within regionally based
multi-member districts, in a number of countries (e.g. Germany, Namibia,
Israel, Netherlands, Denmark, South Africa, and New Zealand) the
parliamentary seat distribution is effectively determined by the overall
national vote. |
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